Improvement in wire-fence barbs



H. B. scum. WIRE-FENCE BARBS.

No.4193,557. Patented July 24,1877.

' sorney.

HIRAM B. SOUTT, OF JOLIE'I, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO JOLIET WIREv FENCE COMPANY, OF SAME PLAGE.

IMPROVEMENT IN WIRE-FENCE BARBS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 193,557, dated July 24, 1877 application filed October S3, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HIRAM B. SCUTT, of Joliet, in the county of Will and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of Manufacturing Sheet-Metal Barbs, and also in the construction of sheet-metal barbs adapted for use in connection with wire fences 5 and l do hereby clare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of my improvement in the said art, and in the form of barbs of the class referred to, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, and in which- Figure l is a perspective view of a wire fence provided with barbs embodying my invention Fig. 2, a like represent-ation of a single wire mounted ywith a barb.` Fig. 3'is a top or plan view of the barb-blank before the same is bent and applied to the wire. Fig. 4 is a vertical cross-section in the plane of the line .r w. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal vertical section in the plane of the line y y; and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a plate or bar of metal, from which the blank shown in Fig. 3 is made.

Like letters of reference indicate like parts.

It is desirable that barbs employed to turn stock from wire fences should not only have well-sharpened points, but also be sufficiently rigid to retain their form if crowded against by the stock.

It is also desirable, in order to facilitate the construction of barbs of this class, that little or no manipulation should be required after the blanks have been operated upon by dies, tools, or machines employed to produce the blanks. Y

One of the objects of my invention is to avoid much or all of this manipulation, and at the same time to produce well-sharpened barbpoints.

Another object of my invention is to so construct the borbs that they may be firmly attached, with facility, to wire-fence rails consisting either of one or more strands.

To this end my invention relates, first, to the art of making pointed sheet-metal blanks or barbs for wire fences; and, second, to the form which results in adapting barbs of the class hereinafter described to be attached to either one or more wires.

For the purpose of accomplishing the objects above set forth, my invention consists, rst, in making the barbs from bars or plates of sheet metal, diminishing in thickness from the central part toward the edges, substan tially as hereinafter more particularly described; and, secondly, in providing the barb with short projections adapted to clasp the strands, substantially as hereinafter more particularly specified. In the drawing, A A represent fence-posts, and B B' are wire rails, the first of which consists of a single wire, and the second of a cable of two or more strands. C C are fourpointed sheet-metal barbs,'arranged on the said rails at suitable intervals. The barbs, with the exceptions hereinafter mentioned, are constructed somewhat in form like those shown and described in Letters Patent No. 180,656, dated August l, 1876, and issued to me, for improvements in barbed fence-wires. The blanks D from which these barbs are made are cut from oblong bars or pieces of sheet metal E, made thinnest at the edges by rolling or compression, as shown in Figs. 4, '5, and 6. The broken lines inFig. 6 indicate where the bar or piece E is cut, in order to produce barbs or blanks of the form shown in Fig. 3.

It will be perceived, by reference to Figs. 4, 5, and 6, that the points aa a a of the prongs of the blank D all terminate in the edges of the bar or plate E, and hence the extreme points will not Nonly be very sharp, but the prongs increase in thickness from their points toward their junction with the central part of the barb, which is the thickest, and that the prongs Will thus be very stout and rigid, as well as sharp.

It will also be observed that no further manipulation of the blanks will be necessary in order to produce sharp and strong prongs. In other Words, the blank, as soon as it is struck from the bar or plate E, has sharp and strong-pointed prongs.

In order to render blanks or barbs of the form shown capable of being attached with facility either to a single strand or to a cable of `two or more strands, I leave upon the blanks the short central projection e e, and I attach the barbs by clasping the projections about one of the strands, as represented in Fig. 1.

The only difference between the .blank herein shown and described and the one shown and described in the patent hereinbefore referred to, so far as relates to form, consists in the projections e e, an-d yin the diminishing thickness of the prongs, resulting from the novel form of the bars or plates from which they are struck.

The plate E, instead of being at on one,

side, as shown, may be arched on both.

I am aware that barbs for wire fences have heretofore been made pointed, and that the points or prongs have been thinnest along their edges, or that the prongs have been made tapering not only toward their points, but toward their lateral edges, and I do not here intend to claim such, broadly but Having thus described my invention, what Iclaim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. As an improvement in the art of manufacturi-ng sheet-metal lbarbs for wire fences,

'cutting from said bars the barb-blanks by means of a V-shaped die or stamp having its cutting-edges arranged to meet in or near the -centerot' the said fbars, :and extending4 to or terminating inthe longitudinal edges thereof. 2. The barb C, cut in lines converging from v `itsfoutercorners'toward the {sente-1*, and having thereon, between each pair of prongs thus formed, a projection, e, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

3. A sheet metal barb having tapering prongscnt in lines converging from its four outer corners :or .points toward thecenter, and provi-ded with the Aprojections e e, arranged between the prongs so -formed., in 'combination with a strand or cable of a wirefeuce, substanally as and for the purposes set forth.

HIRAM B. SCUTT.

Witnesses f:

H. E. BIGELoW, F. F. WARNER. 

